Anyone Who Inspects the World Around Him Is in Some Measure a Geographer”

Pasolinian Contributions to an Ecology of the Edges

Bibliographic Data

ID13100697
AuthorsL Matthey (0000-0002-9435-1666, University of Geneva, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume8
Issue1
Pages177-196
Publication date2021-12-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoHumanities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2373-5678 • E-ISSN: 2373-566X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/2373566x.2021.1989321
OpenAlexW4200505676
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited32

In a 1947 paper, John K. Wright proposed the term “geosophy” to capture “the study of geographical knowledge from any or all points of view,” a discipline that would explore all “geographical ideas,” both “true and false.” This geosophy has led to a certain interest in parallel, imaginary or popular geographies. In the field of French-language geography, it will continue late in the day in a questioning of para-geographies produced by amateur or nonacademic geographers, rather close to certain Anglo-Saxon debates relating to popular geographies. His article attempts to reverse this point of view by turning these para-geographies into legitimate theories of space that are not recognized as such, as they are stated in a language other than that of science. It is a more poetic language, which resorts to allusion, implicit and imagery, whereas scientific writing prefers clarity, explicitness and factuality. As a result, these parallel geographies have not been elevated to the rank of a certain scientific dignity by the institution of geography and, more broadly, the sciences interested in the territory. I explore here some of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s productions by focusing on the geographical knowledge of which they are both the product and the vector. To do so, I mobilize literary and film materials from his oeuvre. If Pasolini was not a researcher, as defined by academia, he was at least someone who was searching. His work, which aimed at broadening reflection on the way society functions, with a view toward its spatial organization, might have contributed to geographic knowledge

Aesthetics · Art history · Cartography · CLARITY · Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Geographer · Geography · Linguistics · Social science · Sociology · The Imaginary · Wright · Geography and Education Methods · Historical Geography and Geographical Thought · History · Mathematics · Philosophy